A new report was released in June that sheds a sobering light on how many Black and Latino boys grow up in communities that are, in a number of ways, dangerous to their health. Called "Healthy Communities Burberry Handbags Matter: The Importance of Place to the Health of Boys of Color," the report contained contributions from scholars and researchers at the RAND Corporation, PolicyLink, the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School, and the Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice and the Department of Emergency Medicine at Drexel University. It was funded by the California Endowment. Some of its data and best practices focus on California but the lessons learned apply to communities across the country.

The researchers found that boys and young men overall experience worse health outcomes than girls, that these health disparities are even more profound for Black and Latino boys, and that many of these disparities can be connected to community patterns. As they explain: "Negative health outcomes for AfricanAmerican and Latino boys and young men are a result of growing up in neighborhoods of concentrated disadvantage, places that are more likely to put boys and young men directly in harm's way and reinforce harmful behavior. In other words, if you grow up in a neighborhood with a good school, where it's safe, where you can walk and play outside, where you have a regular doctor and where you have access to good food, you are more likely to live a long and healthy life. On the other hand, if you grow up in a neighborhood where you're not safe, where your school is failing you and where you do not have a place to go when you are sick or a basic grocery store, then you are far more likely to live a shorter life, to earn less money, to be party to or victim of violence and to be far less healthy emotionally replica rolex watches and physically. If you are African American or Latino, you are likely to face not just one of those challenges, but many or ail of them at once."

They found disparities for Black and Latino boys and young men in a number of areas, including infant mortality, childhood asthma hospitalizations, childhood obesity, post-traumatic stress disorder, rates of HIV and AIDS, and lack of health insurance and access to health care. They also found safety disparities, including higher rates of exposure to domestic and community violence, child abuse and neglect, lifetime likelihood of going to prison, and gun violence and homicide death rates. The researchers also were able to track how social inequalities and negative neighborhood conditions work together to shape the life course of boys and young men in schools and communities of "concentrated disadvantage." They note that these schools' and neighborhoods' common characteristics, including concentrated poverty, community violence, high rates of incarceration, overexposure to unhealthy foods, and lack of recreation often work together to lead to disruptive behavior and psychological conditions for boys and young men of color. For the Children's Defense Fund and others concerned about dismantling the pipeline to prison for children of color, their descriptions of accumulated risks and negative outcomes are sadly familiar.

But there are solutions. As these researchers say, "To recalibrate the life trajectory of African- American and Latino boys and young men, policymakers, community activists and government officials must view the health of a community not in individual parts, but as an unbroken whole, made up of individual but virtually inseparable parts." The report profiles several California organizations and public/private partnerships that are 'doing just that and achieving results including the California EnReplica Watches
Replica Watches

An Indian Foreign Service officer, responsible for championing women's rights, illegally sneaked an underage girl into the US to serve as a personal slave for herself and her husband.

Neena Malhotra and husband Jogesh allegedly forced the girl to sleep on the floor of their apartment inside the Indian Mission to the United Nations in between waiting on them hand-and-foot 16 hours a day, seven days a week.

Neena, who returned to Delhi from New York about a year back, is currently director, Southern Division of the Ministry of External Affairs Ministry.

Shanti Gurung, now 21, claims her drudgery included giving daily massages to her evil mistress, who ironically headed a 2008 initiative against domestic abuse while serving as a Manhattan-based consul responsible for "women-related issues."

Gurung also handled cooking, cleaning, laundry, errands and chores - often until 3 am. following frequent parties in the couple's East 43rd Street home, her suit says.

The Manhattan federal court filing - which seeks unspecified damages for three-plus years of "slavery and peonage" - says the Malhotras starved Gurung, with Neena once berating her for eating a slice of bread without permission.

Gurung, who has only an eighth-grade education, claims the couple tricked her into accompanying them to America in March 2006 with the promise of Rs5,000 a month, with raises every six months.

But she only received a single payment of Rs5,500 and was threatened that "if she ever tried to leave, the police would beat and arrest her . . . take any of Gurung's money and send her back to India as cargo," the suit says.

Gurung - who was 17 when her "involuntary servitude" began - also says the Malhotras made her lie to US immigration officials about her age and a purported $7-an-hour salary in order to get her a visa.

She finally escaped in July 2009, fleeing while they were out of the apartment "to the home of a young woman she managed to meet when she went shopping for the defendants."

The allegations are eerily similar to those that sent Varsha and Mahender Sabhnani to the slammer for enslaving a pair of Indonesian women inside their Long Island home.

Both Neena and her husband, an engineer, have since returned to India, where Neena currently works for the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi.

The Consulate General of India in Manhattan didn't return requests for comment.

Credit:Team DNA

Designer handbags are rather popular when it comes to decorating the wardrobes of desperate housewives to flashy celebrities on Rodeo Drive. (Wholesale Chanel Handbags). While there are tons of designer handbags to consider, there are few whose style, design, and reputation surpasses that of authentic Gucci handbags

With a history deeply rooted in the early 1920s, authentic Gucci handbags didnâ??t acquire an iconic reputation until their first handbag with a bamboo handle was introduced in 1947

From then on, the popularity train has yet to come to a complete stop Today, the demand for authentic Gucci handbags is so high that anxious consumers are even willing to accept a knockoff just to possess the Gucci name. Fake Rolex Watches Unfortunately, the present market is saturated with imitation designer handbags, which love to duplicate Gucci items. louis vuitton belt When looking for authentic Gucci handbags for your next purchase, there are a few suggestions you might want to consider

Before purchasing a Gucci product or any other designer handbags, you should exercise caution, as well as eagle eyes. (Lateral shoulder bags). There are a few ways to determine whether or not you are in danger of purchasing an authentic Gucci handbag fake First, the stitching of a designer handbag is rather telling, particularly around the edges If your potential buy is one of the many dazzling authentic Gucci handbags on the market, it will display high-quality, fine stitching throughout the body of the bag Fake designer handbags often showcase uneven or poorly executed stitching

The construction of authentic Gucci handbags is also important The quality of materials will alert you to the realness of your potential purchase Make it a habit to analyze the leather, canvas, or other details. chanel charm bracelet Cheap-looking or sloppy craftsmanship is a sure sign that you are looking at a fake Gucci handbag One of the best ways to make sure you are purchasing authentic Gucci handbags is to shop or browse legitimate department stores and Internet sites

Active-Semi International released a new member of their patent- pending power management unit (PMU) family: the ACT8937.

The Company said this device is optimized for the power, voltage sequencing and control requirements of application processor power solutions. The new PMU device features three DC/DC step-down and four low-noise, low-dropout linear (LDO) regulators along with a complete battery-charging solution and the advanced ActivePath system-power selection function. The ACT8937 PMU constitutes a complete and highly efficient ActivePMU power management solution for battery-powered mobile devices.

"The new ACT8937 highlights the latest innovation in Active- Semi's PMU products," said Gary Hurtz, VP of Power Management at Active-Semi. "This PMU is specifically optimized for Samsung's S5PC100, S5PC110 and S5PV210 processors. The ACT8937 PMU allows the system developer to reduce the overall system BOM cost significantly by eliminating the need for external discrete components Replica Blancpain Watches for power sequencing. The product development cycle is shortened by reducing the complexity of the software settings required for power system control."

"The new ACT8937 PMU from Active-Semi is among the most power efficient on the market," said General Manager Ham of COWON. "With its compact design and excellent performance, it is still simple to use and to control."

"The new ACT8937 PMU is an important addition to the Active-Semi PMU product line," said Larry Blackledge, CEO of Active-Semi. "The ACT8937 satisfies the unique power requirements of the new S5PC1xx and S5PC2xx processor families. ACT8937 is a very competitive solution for next-generation portable equipment platforms."

Active-Semi ships over 50 million power ICs per quarter and continuously develops new intellectual property to provide solutions with over 70 patents granted, pending or provisional.

More information:

active-semi.com

((Comments on this story may be sent to ))

DampRid� Expert Advises Urges Homeowners to Prepare against Water Damage and Consequent Excessive Moisture, Mold and Mildew

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Darin Galka, Sexy Costumes a moisture control expert with DampRid�, urges homeowners along the Gulf Coast and the Atlantic seaboard to begin their storm preparation in advance of an actual storm. According to Galka, the possibility of water damage and mold and mildew growth is a frequently overlooked area of preparation. 鈥淲ater damage quickly leads to the growth of mold and mildew, which grow in the presence of humidity,鈥?he said. 鈥淪pores can begin growing and reproducing within 48 hours.鈥?

Galka recommends that home owners always control the existing moisture level in their homes by placing DampRid, a line of environmentally friendly calcium chloride moisture absorbers, in key areas such as bathrooms, kitchens, laundry rooms, basements, and garages.

鈥淚t鈥檚 also important to have a supply of DampRid on hand for post-storm needs,鈥?said Galka. 鈥淗omes may take on water and excess moisture from roof damage or flooding. After flood waters recede, use DampRid to eliminate musty odors and the dampness that enables mold growth.鈥?

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency warns that exposure to mold can cause symptoms such as nasal stuffiness, eye irritation, wheezing, or Replica Angular Momentum Watches skin irritation. Particularly susceptible are pregnant women, infants, the elderly, and those with pre-existing health conditions. Severe reactions can include asthma episodes, fever, shortness of breath, and mold infection in the lungs.

DampRid offers a line of moisture absorber products Glashutte PanoMaticDate Mens Watch 90-01-01-01-04 that control moisture to eliminate the dampness that enables mold to grow. To learn more about moisture and mold control and how to prepare a home for the rainy season, visit .

About DampRid

Founded in 1948, DampRid is the worldwide market leader for effective, safe and affordable non-electric dehumidifiers. Through the years, DampRid has introduced a number of products designed to absorb moisture, eliminate odors, continually expanding and improving its line. Today鈥檚 line of DampRid products control moisture in all areas of the home, cars, boats, and RVs. DampRid is a division of W.M. Barr, based in Memphis, Tennessee. DampRid products are available for purchase at major retailers and grocery stores, online at , or by calling 1-800-238-2672.

Photos/Multimedia�Gallery Available:

HAMBURG -- Hamburg Area High School students may have helped shed some light on a historical mystery.

On Monday, the group lit two of the four lanterns they reproduced to simulate those of the H.L. Hunley, a Confederate submarine that sank Feb. 17, 1864.

No one knows why the submarine sank but two witnesses -- a Union sailor aboard the ship that the Hunley sank and a Confederate soldier waiting on shore -- reported seeing a blue light in the waters. It is speculated that the Hunley's lantern cast that light, so the students recreated and tested two working lantern replicas to prove -- or disprove -- the theory.

Adviser Ned Eisenhuth said the signal the Union sailor most likely saw was a sign that the mission to hit and sink the USS Housatonic was a success.

"We are hoping to be able to see the light at night from 1,100 feet," senior Joshua Buchalter, Shoemakersville, said. "If we see it, it proves the Union sailor was right when he testified during the naval inquiry that he saw the light."

The first light, a clear light, shone from the tree line near a road alongside the school. It was seen by the group gathered on the grassy hill behind the school.

The second light, tinted blue using a lacquer base with a tincture of color as they may have done in the 1800s, could also be seen by the group, although not as brightly as the clear light.

It took about six months for the 12 students and two advisers, Eisenhuth and Fred Lutkus, to construct the six lantern replicas.

Although construction of the lanterns began in January, a lot of preparation work was done before that time.

Last November, researchers with the Clemson Conservation Center, North Charleston, S.C., the group restoring the H.L. Hunley, held a video conference with Hamburg Area students. Students signed up for the project and 12 were selected: Nikole Lamey, Francesca Lella, Heidi Stertzel, Jessica Dompkowski, Cody Wertz, Josh Buchalter, Joey Parent, Anthony Urban, Seth Kunkel, Nicholas Rentschler, Alex Hartman and Austin Hartman.

Sexy Camisoles Metal working equipment was brought in to do the work. The team also had to make sure the conditions are as close to those in 1864 as possible before it travels to South Carolina for tests -- from the lantern's construction down to the weather.

Since it is believed the original lantern used whale oil, a similar substitute had to be found.

The owner of a lantern assembly business in California, who has been advising the project and helping with supplies, said a mixture of kerosene and paraffin will have the same flame point and consistency of whale oil.

Civil War-era glass was purchased off eBay for use in the lantern.

The team has even applied for membership with a Confederate history museum to get access to detailed archives.

"I wanted to be involved because I like the Civil War and for the metal work, but also to be a part of history," sophomore Seth Kunkel, Hamburg, said.

Replica Rado Watches The two lanterns tested Monday will be taken to South Carolina and tested on the water at a three-mile distance to the shore.

"If we can see it in this test, it will prove the Confederate soldier in the battery on shore, may
Wow gold!:
Wow gold
Wow gold

JUST because you've never been lucky enough to own an expensive piece of Alexander McQueen doesn't mean he hasn't had a massive influence on your wardrobe. His designs filtered through to the High Street and he was responsible for countless trends. Here we take a look the signature designs that made the biggest impact on the way we dressed.

TOP SHOP

McQUEEN'S Spring-summer 2003 catwalk show was one of his most influential.

The skull prints were an enormous overnight hit with celebrities and fashionistas alike and suddenly skulls started Replica Raymond Weil Watches to appear on everything - from T-shirts to handbags.

And they remain a huge influence today.

pounds

PHASE EIGHT HIS 2009 autumnwinter collection featured dogtooth that looked contemporary and had huge impact in the high street.

Sexy Leather Lingerie pounds 89

ASDA

INSPIRED by movie director Alfred Hitchc o c k , h i s autumnwinter 2005 collection was a tribute to his heroines with tailored dresses.

pounds 16

TOP SHOP

THE goat hair used in his autumn -winter 2000 collection was a big hit with the likes of Kate Moss.

pounds 150

MATALAN

ONE of the surprise trends to emerge from the 2006 catwalk shows was tartan. Thought of as traditionally stuffy, McQueen managed to make it mainstream overnight.

Victoria Beckham and Sarah Jessica Parker both wore pieces from this collection Replica Breitling Watches and suddenly everyone was buying into the look.

pounds 20

TOP SHOP

pounds 45

McQUEEN shocked everyone with the revealing "bumster" trousers that he paraded down the catwalk as part of his 1995 "Highland Rape" collection. But within weeks we were wearing daringly low hipster styles.

A SAFETY event for young people will focus on knife crime, replica firearms, bullying and domestic violence next month.

The Safe conference, is at Stephenson College, Coalville, on February 17.

There will be information stands and displays by firefighters and the police dog team, from 1pm to 4pm, which are open to the public. There will be evening workshops just for teenagers.

Live Nation, organisers of this summer's Download Festival, at Donington Park, have high heel shoes supplied two VIP back stage passes to be awarded as prizes at the event.

Replica Bulgari Watches Councillor Trevor Pendleton, the district council's children and young people's spokesman, said: "We are excited about the support from Live Nation for this event. Safe is in its second year and we hope this event will be as successful as the first."

A GRANDFATHER visiting his family in Newton Mearns at the weekend watched as his grandson put on elbow pads, knee pads and a helmet before announcing: "I'm going to ride my bike, grand-da."

"Where?" asked the puzzled old fella. "Through a mine-field?"

WE mentioned stand-up character Vladimir McTavish raising money for the charity Spirit Aid by visiting 50 Scottish distilleries. He began his journey at Auchentoshan near Clydebank, and noted in his diary of the journey: "Entering Clydebank, you are met with the inspiring welcome sign 'Clydebank: Proud Past, Dynamic Future'. So it's at least 50% accurate."

AN EDINBURGH reader tells us he attended a business dinner where a chap at his table, after a few libations, launched into a lengthy tale about suing a company, but the case got tied up in the courts. Our reader thought it was going to be awkward when the chap ended his story belligerently with: "In the end, the only people who got any money were the bloody lawyers!" as there were a couple of lawyers at the table. He didn't have to worry as one of the lawyers filled the ensuing silence by opining: "Oh, I do like a story with a happy ending."

AND still we can't let it go. A chap in a Glasgow pub asked his mate: "Did you see 10 Russian spies have been arrested in America after pretending to be just normal people?"

"What about," his mate replied, "the 11 Englishmen who should have been arrested in South Africa for pretending to be footballers?"

A REGULAR at the Elms Bar in Saltcoats tells us that during the World Cup there are always one or two regulars who put up a constant barrage of criticism about the players or the quality of the football. Eventually another regular told them: "I met a guy who asked me if the constant whining noise during the World Cup games did ma heid in. So I asked him, 'Do you drink in the Elms Bar too?' "

A READER in Glasgow watched a young lad get a red face in a coffee shop when ordering a coffee he asked the server: "How big are your cups?"

"That's a bit personal," she replied.

THE picture of former Scottish Labour leader Jack McConnell in ermine at the Lords was hard for traditional Labourites. One tells us: "He calls himself Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale, which used to be a sheep farm and is now a tearoom. Lord McConnell of the Tearoom has a certain ring to it."

"MY boss says I'm not very sympathetic," a reader's pal explained. "He said he was so stressed he felt like jumping out of the window. So I told him to go up a couple of floors as there was no guarantee he would kill himself from the fourth floor."

AMARILLO, Texas (AP) -- Millionaire prankster and artist Stanley Marsh 3 is back at it.

The 71-year-old's newest creation is unlike most of his others, though. This one -- not far from where Marsh began his playful ways 35 years ago by burying 10 vintage Cadillacs nose down in a wheat field -- will be peaceful and verdant.

And less noticeable, which is how he likes it.

This time, the art lover, philanthrope and, some say, eccentric is building a replica of Claude Monet's water lilies pond -- a very big one -- to grace the backyard of Toad Hall, the 300-acre spread in this Panhandle city he and his wife call home.

"Art should be hidden and I believe people should see it by surprise," said Marsh, adding that a masterpiece above a supermarket produce section evokes a more authentic response than a well- makeup brush publicized museum exhibit. "The best and most significant art, you should never tell people where it is."

That was his intent in 1974 when he commissioned Cadillac Ranch. The cars -- ranging from a 1948 club coupe to a 1963 sedan were gathered from junkyards, private collectors and used car lots -- have since become a pop art landmark.

Visitors through the years have splattered them with graffiti and, in 2005, they were coated in pink to honor breast cancer victims, survivors and their families. Marsh has also painted them black and yellow to honor the passing of longtime friends.

In 1997, he moved the Caddies a couple of miles west along Interstate 40 to distance them from Amarillo's encroaching sprawl. They needed space.

"It's flat here, and just on the horizon, just as you see it, the tail fins begin to rise, and you don't know what it is," lingerie wholesale the animated Marsh said of the Cadillacs' skyward-pointing rear ends. "Even after you see it you don't know why it's there.

"In my mind it's made for people who have never seen it or a picture of it."

Marsh (he uses the numeral 3 instead of III because he believes the latter is pretentious) grew up in Amarillo the son of a millionaire oil tycoon. He returned to the Panhandle in the late 1960s after getting his master's degree in American civilization at the University of Pennsylvania.

At first, he wanted to teach but instead bought a share of a downtown bookstore. He could have worked for his father but liked working on his own, he said. "And then things happened."

Marsh served as a bank board director and then married. He and Wendy Marsh, an attorney who once worked for U.S. Sen. John Tower, R- Texas, have remained strong proponents and philanthropes of education and art in the Amarillo area. Amarillo has its own brand of charm, said Marsh, who has owned two television stations, one in this city of about 175,000.

Marsh spends his days at an office occupying the entire 12th floor of a downtown high-rise. (He used to be on the top floor, occasionally dropping water balloons on unsuspecting pedestrians.) A pantry of condiments and other spices nearly fills a picnic table at which he eats lunch most days. He has no desk.

The sprawling, airy office is divided randomly, filled with what appear to be Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol and Mark Rothko paintings. All, however, are fakes he and a friend forged because he didn't want to pay for originals.

"I'm a low budget guy," Marsh said. "I'm not rich. I'm certainly ve
Other articles:
http://www.joehisaishi.org/plus/view.php?aid=160
http://www.afrigater.com/blog.php?user=mywatches&blogentry_id=250

STEVE McQueen fans can kid themselves they look as cool as the Great Escape icon (right) - with a T-shirt from Triumph.

The bike-maker is selling replicas of the top Steve used to wear off-set. The actor was an expert racer and represented the US in off- road events. No details of the cost but you can buy the Fake Louis Vuitton Handbags shirt (left) from Triumph dealers or online from Triumph from March 24 - which would have been Steve's 78th birthday.

The Ascent of Money? Surely, when banks everywhere are crashing round our ears and being bailed out by governments, when lending and liquidity are tight and recession looms, a book and accompanying six- part television series so titled is - how shall I put it? - rather out of joint with these turbulent times. Money's got us all in the mire this time, has it not? Niall Ferguson replica hublot watches is having none of it.

With the historian's long view, a perspective well beyond the ken of any hedge fund manager, Ferguson has two core messages.

The first is that sooner or later every bubble bursts. The other is that, while the ground might sometimes give way beneath our feet, the financial history of our world is a journey of Andean proportions. No matter how jagged the path, it nevertheless takes us all to higher ground in the end.

"Every crisis no matter how bad, including the Great Depression, does not take you back to the Stone Age, " he argues. "It took until the 1950s for the US stock market to get back to where it had been in 1929. But it got there.

And then it sailed off into the stratosphere. So my understanding of financial history is that it is punctuated by boom and busts. That's its character. We, as human beings, are gripped by euphoria and then by gloom. And we overshoot in both directions."

We meet in Edinburgh, in the second week of September. He is back in Scotland, briefly, to speak at a financial conference. The book launch and the Channel 4 series are still a couple of months off. The US mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have, in effect, just been nationalised by the Bush administration. Lehman Brothers is tottering. "The likelihood is a succession of American banks will fail, " warns Ferguson. "It's going to be a brutal September and October." And so it proves, and not just across the Atlantic, where Ferguson is Laurence A Tisch professor of history at Harvard. He says he saw it coming from quite a long way off. "I think by analogy.

I say: here is the present predicament, what does it remind me of? And what can the past tell us? On that basis it wasn't difficult to foresee a major financial crisis. Liquidity crises happen.

And they happen when markets are at their most frothy and institutions at their most leveraged. We had clearly reached an unsustainable peak by 2006/07."

In Clip on charms his book, he recounts speaking to bankers at a conference in November 2006 in the Bahamas. His theme was how little it would take to trigger a drastic decline in the liquidity then cascading through the global fi nancial system. He was dismissed as alarmist. One experienced investor even suggested they dispense with a speaker the following year and organise a screening of Mary Poppins instead.

The theme of the 1960s musical revolves around an event that doesn't come around too often - a run on a bank.

Ferguson, who is Glasgow-born, savours such moments. He is instinctively, professionally, contrarian. "If a majority of people subscribe to a particular view, it pays to question it, " he explains. "It pays to think: maybe this is wrong." Some clever people had come up with securitisation as a way of repackaging liabilities, even sub-prime mortgages, and selling them on. Some even boasted risk had been abolished in the financial system. "It was too self-serving. I knew it had to be wrong, " says Ferguson, who regards his historical knowledge as "a great vaccine against the Kool-Aid that says this time it's different".

Back in 1969, at the tender young age of 16, I was about to first experience the otherworldly sounds of a British rock group known as Pink Floyd. It was the age of Woodstock, and I had moved with my parents from the sweltering big city of Houston to the pastoral charms of rural Arkansas.

Despite the laid-back vibe of the country, as a passionate young record fan, I still sought out the most unusual sounds I could find, and the album cover for Ummagumma was too intriguing for me to pass up. At first glance, it seemed normal enough - four long-haired young men inside a room, in various positions at an open doorway. But on the wall of the room was a framed portrait of the same scene, only now the order of the men had changed.

Without changing the original positions (one in a chair, the next at the steps outside, further out one looking up, and the farthest member on his back, legs up), the group had switched with one another. And within the picture was yet another repeated picture, and within it another, so that in the course of the views within views each member of the band was in each of the four positions. I was floored by this concept and rushed home with the double-vinyl album. After absorbing the spacey sounds, I went back to the cover art and discovered that it was designed by "Hipgnosis" - another fascinating concept. I started noticing more Hipgnosis covers on what usually turned out to be the most cutting-edge rock albums coming out of the U.K. at that time.

Hipgnosis was the title of Britain's coolest art collective. It consisted of two school chums from Cambridge, Storm Thorgerson and Audrey "Po" Powell. Thorgerson and Powell were also friends with the lads from Pink Floyd, who came from the same area, and Hipgnosis (the double-meaning name combines "hip", or to-the moment, with "gnostic," relating to ancient learning; it came from graffiti found scrawled on the door of their apartment) began their career by designing the Floyd's second long-player, A Saucerful of Secrets, in 1968.

Within time, their list of clients included some of the top acts in England, including Genesis, Yes, Black Sabbath, Alan Parsons Project, Peter Gabriel, 10cc, Led Zeppelin, UFO and Paul McCartney and Wings; Hipgnosis were also responsible for designing the cover to Douglas Adams' novel "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." Their approach to design was based largely on photography, and by utilizing many pre-Photoshop tricks (including airbushing, multiple exposures, etc.), their designs were decidedly surreal.

A quirky sense of humor was also a hallmark of their work. This was not your usual ad agency to be sure. Even their method of billing clients - "pay what you think it's worth" - was more in keeping with the free-spirit feeling of the time, rather than the hustle-for-every-buck attitude of corporate America's Madison Avenue ad agencies. And as former film students, Thorgerson and Powell tended to use models as actors, with cover designs looking like selected scenes from a movie.

Some of their most creative work was produced for their Cambridge pals in Pink Floyd. Album after album, including solo projects, bore the unmistakable stamp of the Hipgnosis team, and with the Floyd's 1973 classic, Dark Side of the Moon, practically everyone in the world seemed to have a Hipgnosis cover or three lurking within their record collection. The concepts continued to amaze and confound, and with Animals and the infamous floating pig they made international news as well when that giant pig floated off from the photo shoot at Battersea Power Plant, resulting in a frantic search (it finally Other articles:
http://watches2010.obolog.com/leicester-evening-card-tomorro-630808
http://www.netblogg.eu/gratis.php

Waseem Khan Photographer on using Caucasian models in Indian ads.

A recent dipstick study of Indian ads revealed the extensive use of Caucasian models. Marketing heads believe these models will be more effective in enticing desi consumers. Comment.

I agree. The Indian consumer is still biased. The purchasing power lies in the middle class and they are the cheap coach purses ones who, when they see ads with Caucasian models, feel the product is better and more 'international'.

But we are also to blame. For long, Indian models have had a fixation about not doing certain ads, like lingerie for example.

They believe that one day, when they get into Bollywood, the ad will come back and haunt them, or that they're not fit enough. But I've always maintained that the client only wants to make a product look more sexy. ... ... But don't Indian models com plain that foreign models are taking away their work? It can't be helped. They're not willing to do certain ads.

A Caucasian model, who comes to India to do a lingerie commercial does it brilliantly. And clients have realised that they're fantastic they have no attitude, and their rates are great too.

Has this helped improve the standards of Indian models?

Initially, desi models were insecure about their profession. They've really had to pull up their socks, get fit and take up modelling as a profession not as a hobby. ... ... That white skin elevates the quality of a brand only reflects prejudiced thinking. Do you agree?

We Indians cry about being treated badly by the world because we are dark-skinned, but we've only done it to ourselves. That's how we look at ourselves.

Will things change?

Eventually, people who advertise regularly will push for more Indian models. But now even the trend worldwide is to get Caucasian models for advertisements.